On Blue's Races

David_Lebling · 12 Oct 1999, 16:25 · from whorl-v0010.mbox · original

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From: David_Lebling at avid.com
Subject: (whorl) On Blue's Races
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 16:25:04
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Jim Jordan wrote about Blue's Races.  I thought I'd add a few more of my ce=
nts
to the pile.

I agree: given the spelling of "Wijzer" and the use of the word "Dorp", the
inhabitants of Dorp are obviously Dutch.  This is close enough to the German
speech style Wijzer exhibits to be enough for me.  (To paraphrase Twain, "T=
he
German dives into a sentence and comes up on the other side of the Atlantic=
 with
a verb in his mouth.").  Wouldn't "Wijzer" in Dutch be pronounced like "Wis=
er"
in English?

On the question of whether these are "really" Dutch, or Indian, or Arab, or
whatever, didn't Mamelta tell Silk that the Cargo was brainwashed (by the s=
ame
reprogramming technology that possession uses) to believe in their parts in=
 the
drama of the _Whorl_? I recall some speculation here on the list that the C=
argo
were the losers when Typhon conquered the Urth.  Typhon could have given th=
em
Chinese or Indian cultural downloads for the sheer Evil Overlord fun of it.
(What was the L. Sprague de Camp story where this happened?  "The Glory Tha=
t Was
Greece," IIRC, although that was a university with a research grant -- as n=
ear
as makes no difference, I guess.)

On the other hand, the inhabitants seem to fit visually, not just culturall=
y,
into the nations (I won't say 'races' here) to whichTyphon assigned them. I=
 have
a mental picture of Typhon going to his era's equivalent of India and gathe=
ring
up proto-Gaonese, Latin America for proto-Vironese, and so on.  This is not=
 as
far fetched as it seems (though it is somewhat far-fetched).  It is certain=
ly
possible to imagine that racial or national "types" could last a long time =
into
the future, especially if there was a decline to a lower technological base.
Mamelta's people were probably the ancestors of the Exultants of Severian's
time, who we have theorized came from off-world. Typhon may have even had t=
he
gene-engineering technology to twiddle people so they fit the national
stereotypes better, but that's more of a stretch.  Even so, the inhabitants=
 of
Viron aren't all Latin American stereotypes in appearance, though the other
towns seem more homogeneous insofar as we know anything about them.

Seawrack doesn't fit any of the stereotypes of the nations we have been
introduced to (unless pinup girl is a nationality).  The only other blond we
know from the Long Sun books is Silk.  (He is blond, isn't he?  Or is he ju=
st
blue-eyed?).

     -- Dave Lebling
     (aka vizcacha)

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